Capacitor in Flux
by Eternal Density
Summary: Another alternate universe story in which Jennifer goes back with Marty, but I've tried to actually be original rather than add lines to the script. Is rather deviated from the original plot. Unrelated to my 'sequel' series. One more chapter left.
1. Intro

Capacitor in Flux

Introduction

The sound of a horn shattered the moment. Marty and Jennifer pulled apart. "It's my dad," Jennifer declared. "I'd better go."

"I'll call you tonight," Marty suggested.

"I won't have time - my grandma's visiting. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Don't come over too early. I'll be up late with Doc, so I'll be sleeping in late."

"Late with Doctor Brown? For what?"

"Some really big experiment. He's been away all week."

"Sounds interesting. I might try sneaking out. Can you write out the details?"

"Yeah, where's some paper?" Marty grabbed the clock-tower flyer and scrawled on it. Jennifer's dad honked again.

"Just a moment!" Jennifer took the flyer, gave Marty a quick kiss, and ran to the car.


	2. A vehicle or something explosive

Chapter One

"What's with the camera, Marty?" Jennifer asked as the teen skated up half a minute after her arrival.

"Doc rang me and asked me to pick it up for him, 'cus he forgot it."

"Did you tell him that I would be here?"

"Didn't think to. But he won't mind."

"I hope not. Where is he anyway?" Jennifer wondered.

"Einie's here. Hey Einstein, where's the doc?"

The dog turned his head towards Doctor Brown's vehicle and wagged his tail.

"Inside, huh? I bet he's got some new invention in there."

Jennifer nodded in agreement. "I wonder what he needs the mall for? Perhaps it could be a vehicle, or something explosive."

"Looks like we're about to find out." The couple looked on in wonder as the back of the truck opened giving way to a cloud of steam and a very odd vehicle. "Whoa, this looks serious," Marty commented.

With a whir, a gull-wing door flapped open. Doctor Brown stepped out dramatically. "Marty! And... Jennifer."

"I hope you don't mind that I invited her."

"No matter, no matter. I'm short a radiation suit, but we can get around that."

Jennifer was surprised. "What do you need radi..."

"Don't worry, all your questions will be answered. Now..."

"Doc, you're machines have been left on all week," Marty pointed out.

"Machines? Oh, never mind that now. Just roll film. What was I going to say?"

"Is that a DeLorean?" interrupted Marty, again.

"Just watch. Is that thing on?"

"Yeah, I'm ready."

"Good. Ahem. Good evening, I'm Doctor Emmett Brown. It is currently 1:17 AM, of Saturday morning, October 28th 1985. I'm at the Twin Pines Mall, Hill Valley, California in the United States of America on planet..."

"Uh, Doc?" Marty interrupted.

"Sorry. I'm here with my latest experiment, the one I've been waiting for all my life. This is the big one, in which I plan to do what has never been done before, though technically if it works it will be possible to do it before..." He noticed the teens' perplexed looks. "Never mind that. Let temporal experiment number one begin! Einie!"

Einstein obediently walked over and was bundled into the car by his owner. "Hold still! Let me get your belt on. There. As you can see, Einstein is wearing this clock, and it is perfectly synchronised with my control watch."

"Mmhmm," Jennifer agreed.

"Have a good trip!" Doc closed the door, minding Einstein's head, and pulled out a remote control.

"Is that hooked up to the car?" Jen asked before Marty could.

In response, Doc backed the car up a short distance.

"It takes all that gear just to drive the car around?" Marty wondered, indicating all the bits attached to the DeLorean.

"No, no, this is secondary. I'm just positioning it for the main event. Wait 'til I get this baby up to 88 miles per hour. Assuming my calculations are correct."

"If you say so, Doc."

"Hey, film the car, not me, the car!" Doc protested.

Marty turned accordingly.

A few seconds later, the car was ready. "We'll need to stand over there for the best view."

"Um, Doctor Brown? Isn't that directly in the path of...'

"Of course! Now, with a bit of a boost..." He began spinning the rear wheels with the breaks on hard. "Now!"

Discomforted by the sudden and swift approach of the vented vehicle, the two teens began shuffling sideways.

"Hey, watch this, back in position you two," the scientist urged.

The pair reluctantly obeyed as the car drew nearer... and began to flash.

"What on earth..."

**KAFWOOM**!

The trio stared motionless as trails of fire shot between them. Jennifer jumped aside as a numberplate floated mysteriously past her head.

"Yes! What did I tell you? Eighty-eight miles per hour!"

"What _was_ that?" Jennifer demanded. "Where's Einstein?"

"Disintegrated," Marty declared.

"The temporal displacement occurred at exactly 1:20am and zero seconds!" Doc explained joyously.

"Huh?"

"Einstein has become the worlds first time traveller! I sent him a minute into the future!"

"The future!" Jen echoed.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, Doc, are you telling me you build a time machine out of a DeLorean?"

"No, he's showing us," Jennifer retorted, stepping towards the numberplate.

Doc nodded. "The way I see it: if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

"Isn't it almost..." Jen tried to interrupt.

"Besides, the stainless steel construction makes the flux dispersal... Look out!" Doc pulled Marty out of the way, and only just in time.

"Phew, that was close!" pronounced Jennifer. "Is Einie alright?"

"Let's see." Doc tried opening the door. "Ahh!"

"Is it hot?" Marty wondered.

"No, cold."

"Unlike the numberplate," Jen mentioned as she dropped the offending item and blew on her fingers.

"Yes, there are some thermal dispersal issues! But here's Einstein, and he's fine! The trip was instantaneous for him: see, his clock is exactly one minute behind mine! He skipped right over that minute."

"Wow," said Marty as he watched the dog run back to Doc's work van. "How does it work?"

"Look in here and I'll show you."


	3. Both of the Above, and then some

Disclaimer: In case you haven't read any of my other stories, I should point out that I don't own BTTF yadda yadda yadda.

Chapter Two

"So, that's the time circuits and flux capacitor covered," Doc summarised when he was done explaining.

"Uh huh. Does it run, like on regular unleaded gasoline?" Marty inquired.

"I have a feeling the answer is no," Jennifer guessed.

"To travel through time, it requires something with a little more kick: plutonium."

"You mean it travels through time... on a nuclear blast?" Marty's camera hand dropped in astonishment.

"Hey, keep it rolling there! Nonononono, the nuclear power generator is simply a power source. The flux capacitor uses plain electrical energy, but a lot of it!"

"How much precisely, Doctor Brown?"

"One point twenty-one gigawatts. Intense, but brief."

"Um, I don't know what that means, but it sounds like a lot."

"You got that right, Jen," Marty seconded. "Hang on... where'd you get plutonium? It's not like you can get it from any corner store!"

"He's a scientist. Don't they have ways of getting supplies that regular people don't?" Jennifer defended.

Marty disagreed. "You ripped that off, right? This is 'missing' from some plant."

"Of course it is! I acquired it from a group of Libyan nationalists who wanted me to build them a bomb."

"You built a bomb for... terrorists!" Jennifer was rather shocked by this news.

"Why would I do that hen I need the plutonium for my own reasons? I just hope it takes a while before they realise the shiny bomb case I left them is full of used pinball machine parts!"

Marty shook his head. "That was a really 'clever' move, Doc What do we do now?"

"We need to refuel. We'll need radiation suits for safety. Jennifer, you'll need to jog all the way over there to the back of those buildings. I'll honk the horn when it's safe to return."

"If that's what you say," Jennifer complied. "Marty, do take care." The girl ran off to safety. Sne waited under a light until she heard a horn toot. After jogging back, she rejoined the others just as Doc was putting his luggage in the DeLorean.

"Doc's off to the future, if he hasn't forgotten anything else," Marty filled in.

"Really? Can you look us up when you get there? Or then?"

"I'll do that. Marty asked the same thing, actually. And I'm ready to be off now. Everything has been taken... I must be mad!"

"Doctor Brown?" Jennifer leaned up against the car as she wondered what was amiss.

"How do I expect to ever get back? It's one trip per pellet! I need to bring extra plutonuim! Frightfully forgetful of me."

Marty chuckled. "I'm just as bad. I nearly let you go without it."

"Oh, I wouldn't expect you to re... Einstein? What's wrong boy." Everyone turned to see an approaching Volks...wag... "Oh no!" Emmett whispered with utmost gravity. "They found me! Somehow they tracked me down!"

Marty gulped. "You don't mean it's the..."

"It's the Libyans! Run for cover!"

Marty's mouth dropped open with shock. He eventually collected his wits and ran behind the van. "Jennifer, where are you?"

"In the DeLorean!" she called from where she'd ducked on hearing the warning.

"I'll draw their fire, and you two get to safety! It's me they want."

"No Doc!"

But it was too late to do anything. Jennifer watched in horror as the inventor fell to the Libyans' brutal gunfire. She glanced around for Marty... and screamed when the terrorists turned on him. When nothing happened, she opened her eyes. She hadn't realised that she'd shut them until now.

Instantly she spied Marty almost at the DeLorean, so she opened the door for him and moved so he could have the driver's seat. Without a word, he fired up the engine and applied every bit of acceleration possible. There was no time to talk, only to fear and to flee.

Jennifer shrieked again as the vehicles very nearly made contact. The Libyans avoided wisely avoided a collision with the onrushing DeLorean, but at the cost of finding themselves at the wrong heading to quickly give chase. Jennifer relaxed for a moment, but tensed up when she saw the gunman switch his jammed weapon for another.

While avoiding the renewed gunfire, Marty shifted gears. He bumped the lever for the time circuits with his arm. They bleeped into life. "Careful, Marty! You don't know what you might bump in here," she chided as she switched them back off.

"I'm... kinda busy... right now," Marty replied through gritted teeth. He slowed for a tight turn, narrowly avoiding the spray of bullets.

"We've got to get out of the mall!" Jennifer suggested loudly.

"Are you kidding? We'd never make it on a straight road against gunfire! And there's barely anything for them to damage out here. We don't want these guys in a populated... aaah!" Marty skidded through another change of direction.

Wondering why the gunfire had abated, Jennifer looked over her shoulder. "Marty! They have a rocket launcher!"

"Not near me, they haven't!" Marty exclaimed, gripping the steering wheel with white fingers. "Even with all this junk, this DeLorean should outrun their VW if I have time. Let's see 'em do ninety!"

"Junk... time... ninety..." Jennifer echoed in a faraway voice.

"Hush, Jen."

"It's our only chance..." she continued to muse.

Marty clenched his jaw as he looked between the terrorists falling back behind, and the obstacles approaching ahead. The speedometer passed eighty. Jennifer flicked the time circuits on. The photo stand loomed ahead. The windshield was bathed in blue light.

**Bump. Rattle. Thump!**

"Aaahh!" "Eeek!" An unexpected scarecrow paid a short visit.

"Aaaaaaaaah!" And a barn.

**CRASH! Splinter. Crunch!**


	4. Hanging in Time

Sorry this took a while to write: finished up the last two assignments for university this year. Lot's of programming. :D  
Also, it somehow turned out to be very long. Enjoy! And thanks for all the reviews :D

Chapter Three

"Marty?"

"Huh?" Marty felt somewhat disoriented.

"Your turn indicator's on."

"Oh. Where are we?" Marty switched the flashing light off.

"It's too big to be the photo booth, so I'd say in a barn."

"Yeah. Since when was there a barn here?"

Jennifer pointed to the time circuit display.

"Oh." Marty didn't fully grasp what was going on, but some of the wheels in his head were definitely turning. "Doc said something about how Old Man Peabody..."

"Is possibly one of the people looking in the doorway," Jennifer completed.

Marty looked over his shoulder, and then checked his side mirror, as the rear view was somewhat obscured. "They don't look happy about their barn. Uh, I'll be right back." Marty popped open his door and disembarked. Oddly enough, the people at the door screamed and ran away. "Well that was a complete bust. Now what?"

"I think you'd better get that mask off, Marty," Jennifer answered a little teasingly.

"Yeah, I look sorta like a space alien with this thing on my face." Marty began removing it.

"Sherman, fetch us our weapons," boomed an angry voice somewhere outside.

"Yep, I was right," Marty confirmed sadly. "Now we're really in trouble."

Jennifer's eyes lit up as a solution came to her. "I think I can distract them. You get the car started and out of here and pick me up a safe distance away."

"Distract them? How?"

"I'll play damsel in distress. They won't harm a girl who's calling for help."

Marty scratched his head. "Hmm, I guess that should work. Get out there before they get in here!"

Jennifer leapt out, bumping her head, and ran towards the barn door. "Help me!" she shouted before bursting through the door. "It's after me! Help!" She spotted a couple of shadowy figures approaching from a farmhouse.

"What's happening?" "She looks human!" shouted a couple of voices from earlier.

"You need to hide me before it catches me again!" Jennifer demanded.

"I'll shoot it for you!" offered the second voice, a young boy.

"No, bullets don't hurt it! My father already tried when it came to take me!" Jen ad-libbed.

"Quick, everyone in the house!" demanded Mr Peabody as the DeLorean's engine started. Everyone ran for the door and made it inside before the silvery vehicle shot past in reverse. After it made a skidding turn, it found the driveway and navigated unsteadily away.

Mr Peabody looked out the door in time to see it veer off the correct path and power right through a proud pine. The man stared open-mouthed at the damage, but did not try shooting after the fleeing engine of destruction. If it was as futile as the stranger described, he wasn't about to waste ammo.

"I'd better run before it doubles back to look for me," Jennifer suggested before anyone could ask her any awkward questions. "I don't want to put any of you in danger. Is there a back door to this place?"

"Uh huh, in the back," the boy answered helpfully. "I'm Sherman. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Jennifer, but I'd really better go. Thanks for all your help!" She fled through the back door.

"Well doesn't that beat all?!" Old Man Peabody exclaimed. His wife nodded in frightened agreement.

Jennifer quickly made her way through the trees, heading in a direction she figured was somewhat parallel to the driveway. Meanwhile, Marty waited by the roadside not far from the entrance to the pine ranch. Jennifer climbed over a fence and burst onto the road. Marty and the DeLorean were not in sight.

**Honk!**

She turned around and ran back to the time vehicle, having struck the road further up than she'd planned.

"No problems?" Marty asked when his girlfriend had rejoined him.

"It worked fine. I told the bullets wouldn't affect you."

"Clever. But I don't think getting us here was clever. You turned the 'time circuits' on and sent us back in time, right?"

"Hey, we didn't have much chance against the terrorists," Jennifer protested.

"Yeah but we could have been killed by crashing into something, or shot..."

"Marty, we're fine!"

The obvious truth struck home. "We are. That's good. Very good. But... we're kinda stuck, aren't we? If this really is the past, we don't have any plutonium to get back home!"

"Oh. You're right. But at least we're alive, unharmed, and free," Jennifer replied practically.

"This is crazy. Has to be a dream. Let's drive - sitting here isn't doing any good."

"You're right, Marty. There's no way we could really be stuck in the past. Not us - it's too unthinkable. Maybe we're just dreaming about what Doc might invent," she suggested. "Where are you going?" she added, having remembered to ask.

"Back to my house. I hope. Maybe that barn and stuff was an illusion. Or we're lost," Marty rationalised.

Jennifer sighed. "We can only wish."

Several minutes later, the Lyon Estates entrance became visible ahead, and the sky brightened. Also visible was a field of grass, empty except for a dusting of earth-moving machinery. Marty pulled over, rather suddenly and crookedly. "This looks bad."

Jennifer read the ironic signboard a couple of times before nodding in agreement. "I think we..." Beeping from the DeLorean interrupted her.

"I think that's confirming that we are fresh out of plutonium," Marty explained after reading the dials.

"I was about to say: we should hide the DeLorean as we don't want anyone else seeing it, and then look for Doctor Brown."

"Doc? But he... oh, yeah, this was the day he invented time travel. Maybe he can help us get back."

"No one else can, so it's our only chance," Jennifer agreed.

"Behind that sign should be a good place." Marty started the engine and drove the DeLorean into position. Or not. "Perfect, just perfect! Must be something wrong with the starter."

"It won't start?"

"No. Look, I'll need to push, so can you handle the steering? It's easier that way." Marty was struggling to stay calm despite all his troubles.

"Okay, Marty. Let's do this."

When the couple had satisfactorily concealed the vehicle, they began walking into town at a brisk pace. While they both knew at some level that they were in 1955, entering a populated area was still shocking.

"Wow, this is all so... real! It's the strangest feeling, being _in_ the past."

"You're right, Marty. It's like being in a foreign country, yet this is where we live. This is all that is now. I mean, this is the present, and everything we know doesn't exist yet."

"Hmm, that kinda makes sense. If this is real. I still don't know. Hey, look, the clock is running!"

Jen looked. "Amazing! I never really cared if it ran or not, but it's interesting to see it shortly before it stopped."

"That's right; it got hit by lightning thirty years ago. That's this year! What are you doing?"

Jennifer searched her pockets and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper. "You wrote down the details of Doctor Brown's experiment for me, as well as something else," Jennifer said with a grin. "You wrote on the back of this flyer..."

"Heavy! The lightning storm is only a week away. Maybe we'll be around to see it happen!"

"I'd rather be back home. Which reminds me: we need to find Doctor Brown."

"Yeah. He lived in his family mansion before it burned down."

"And now he lives in his garage, so it should be in the same place. Let's go!"

Marty paused. "Uh, Jennifer? I'm kinda thirsty. Could I stop for a Pepsi or something?"

"Can it wait? I'll feel much safer once we speak to Doctor Brown. Plus we don't want to bring much attention to ourselves, as our clothes are all wrong."

"Clothes. Huh, I never would have thought of that. Alright, I can wait."

The teens located the relevant mansion in short order, though not without brief confusion about the name of Doc's street. They gazed at the house, comparing it to the tiny garage he now occupied - or would in the future. As they located the front door across the green lawn, Jennifer asked, "What now?"

Marty considered the options. "How about you wait here and I'll go and explain everything to Doc. I bet even one time traveller will be tough for him to deal with."

"If you say so. But be careful not to confuse him too much. I'm still a little confused myself!"

"Eh, he's the doc, Jen. It'll be fine. I'll be right back." Marty walked forward purposely and knocked on the door. There was a pause follower by the sound of footfalls inside. The door opened suddenly. There was Doc: much younger but still recognisable.

"Doc! You're alive! I mean... well of course you are, but..."

"And who might you be? And why are you here?" the scientist demanded.

"I'm Marty. Marty McFly. I'm a time traveller from the future and I need your help with a time machine."

"Ahh. Is it a time travelling boat?"

"No! Why?"

"That would explain the life jacket."

"Wha? Oh, this. Fashions in the future are different."

'Of course. But I'm rather busy this morning and don't have time for you and your games," Doc answered dryly. "You needn't waste your time with this prank."

"But I'm serious! Look here!" Marty pulled out his driver's license and waved it in front of the man's face. "My drivers license expires in 1987! And I'm not even born yet, for crying out loud!"

"I've seen fake IDs before, but this is rather... creative. Now I'm kind of busy right now. You've taken enough of my time already."

"But I need your help! You're the only one who knows how your time machine works!"

"Oh really. Then tell me, Future Boy. Who's president of the United States in 1985?"

"Ronald Reagan," Marty replied without thinking of how Doc might take this news.

Doc burst into laughter. "The actor? Tell me another one! No, don't tell me: I'm much to busy for this game."

"But..."

"I have a clock to hang. Try something more convincing next time, future boy."

"But Doc, I..."

**Slam.**

"Perfect." Marty walked dejectedly back to Jennifer.

"That didn't sound so good," Jennifer commented, a little redundantly.

"Yeah, I guess time travel is a bit too far out, even for Doc. He didn't even give me the time of day! Uh, I mean... you know what I mean. I guess he was just too busy hanging his clock to care." There was a thoughtful pause. "Oh!"

"What is it, Marty?" Jennifer asked, responding to his anxious face.

"Hanging the clock! Remember, that was how Doc invented the... uh... capsa... flax... flux capacitor. He slipped while he was hanging a clock. _Is_ hanging a clock."

"You mean he hasn't invented time travel yet?"

"Yeah, not quite. If we come back in a few hours, he'll understand what I'm talking about much better!"

"That makes some sort of twisted sense. What do we do in the meantime?"

Marty had an answer ready. "I did see a café back in the centre of town. I'm so thirsty I could murder a Pepsi!"


	5. Several Things Look Black

Yay, wrote this one much quicker!  
As always, I don't own BTTF.

Enjoy!  
(edited for a tiny typo)

Chapter Four

Marty and Jennifer spent the next couple of hours in careful sightseeing. It was interesting to compare the current Hill Valley to what they knew, but the couple still tried to avoid other people as much as possible. Their clothes brought enough funny looks as it was. Finally they decided that Doc should be done inventing the flux capacitor, so they returned to the mansion.

"Yes? Oh, it's you again," Doc greeted when Marty had knocked on the door.

"Yeah, uh, I'm Marty McFly. I still need your help with your time machine. Perhaps you've changed your mind?"

"I haven't invented any time machine! Nor have I changed my mind!"

"Yeah, but you do build one in the future. And you did invent the... uh...flux... capacitor today, right? You told - will tell - me that's what makes time travel possible."

"Flux capacitor? The very concept sounds ridiculous! Why would I ever name an invention in such a manner?"

"Uh... you didn't happen to slip and hit your head while hanging a clock today?"

"One of us might be touched in the head, but it isn't me. Now if you'll excuse me..."

"But... I... I can show it to you! It exists! And you are the only one who can possibly make it work! I need your help to get home!"

"Don't expect me to fix something with a name like 'flux capacitor', Future Boy. Find someone more gullible. Good day." Doc firmly shut the door, leaving Marty to wonder what was up.

"Jennifer! He still hasn't invented it!" Marty exclaimed to Jennifer, who had again stayed a short distance away.

"Yes, I heard. But he simply _has_ to have hung his clock by now. And he told us himself that he invented time travel today! How can he be saying he hasn't?" Jennifer protested.

"I don't know. I really don't know. But it looks like it's about to rain."

"You're right, it does." Jen agreed. "But I saw a bus shelter a street away. If we're quick, we can stay dry."

"Yeah, sounds good."

The teens reached their safe haven only moments before large drops of water began spattering on the ground around them. When Jennifer had caught her breath, she suggested, "I think we've changed history."

"What d'you mean?"

"We aren't supposed to be here. We don't exist yet. But because we came here from the future..."

"We interrupted Doc and he never slipped and bumped his head!"

"We? You're the one who interrupted him!" Jennifer protested.

"It was your idea to look for Doc!"

"And you agreed!"

"Hey, remember who got us stuck back here in the first place. It's not my fault we're in 1955."

"You're the one who was going 88 miles an hour."

"Because the Libyan's we're after me! This whole mess wouldn't have happened if Doc hadn't invented the time machine!"

"But he hasn't!" Jennifer countered.

"Then why are we here? This doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe we're dreaming after all."

"Or maybe he's still going to invent it, just not yet," Marty suggested.

"Possibly."

"Hey, what if, tonight after dark, we took the DeLorean over to Doc's place. He'd have to believe us then!"

"And he might invent the... comparitor thing... if he sees the real one."

"Yeah, good plan."

"We need to get some food first. Do you have any change? I used all mine on our drinks, and I don't expect they'll break an eighties twenty."

"I have a few dollars. We could get pies."

"That's not really enough. What if we can't start the DeLorean? We'll be stuck out overnight, and we'll starve!"

"We need to sell something valuable. I have a silver necklace my grandma gave me yesterday."

"That should do. We'll need to buy some stuff today. I don't think much is open tomorrow."

"We can buy some clothes! Something inconspicuous. But I left the necklace in the DeLorean's glove box. I didn't want to lose it."

"Another trip to the DeLorean and back? Perfect."

"And we can't go until the rain lets up," she added.

"Great. We can be bored and then wear ourselves out."

"There's nothing else to do."

"Yes there is. I should apologise for yelling at you. It's not really your fault we're here. You saved our lives. Twice, if you include the Peabodys."

"Thanks, Marty. I'm sorry too. I was just worried about how we'll ever get home. I still am."

"Don't worry, Jennifer. Everything'll be alright, so long as we're together.

They hugged.

"I still don't think buying everything in black was a good idea," Jennifer rehashed as the teens returned to the DeLorean for the second time.

"It's less visible in the dark. And it should keep the water out if it rains again without buying a raincoat as well, like you did," Marty defended.

"And you do look cute with that hat."

"Uh, thanks."

Jennifer grinned, adding, "It beats your radiation suit, easily."

"Hey!"

Jennifer laughed and ran on ahead. Mary slowed down, smiling to himself, because he had the keys. If she wanted to run ahead, she'd have to wait.

"Let's get this show on the road!" he began when he had let them both inside.

He turned the key. The engine didn't turn over. He tried again a few times. Nothing. "It worked when we were here earlier! Why can't it work when we need it?"

Jennifer shrugged helplessly. "Now what?"

Marty just sat there. "I don't know."

Jennifer looked behind her. Something had been bothering her since she climbed in. "Marty... didn't the... the flask compositor, have three, um, prong bits?"

But Marty didn't answer. He was asleep.

Soon Jennifer was asleep also.


	6. Ouch!

Wrote this all in one sitting. By the way, I mostly write my stories on my Palm PDA (a Tungsten E2) and then do spelling and grammar checking, and general improvement on my PC. I just tend to find it easy to write away from the computer: less distraction.

Anyhow, here's the chapter!

Chapter Five

"Marty? Marty, wake up!"

"Oooh. Ow." Marty didn't really want to wake, since it felt so uncomfortable.

"C'mon Marty, the morning's nearly over," a familiar voice pleaded.

"Mom? Mom, is that you? I had the strangest dream. Dreamed I was stuck in the past. Jennifer was there too," the teen muttered.

"Marty. In _am_ Jennifer!" the voice answered.

"Oh. Where are we? Why does everything hurt so much?"

Jennifer rolled her eyes. "Marty, if you bothered to open your eyes, you'd see we're in the DeLorean. We fell asleep in our seats."

"Ouch. We must have been really tired to do that." Marty still had his eyes closed. It felt safer to ignore the world around him.

"We skipped over most of last night. In 1985 I mean."

Marty considered this statement carefully. "Yeah, that would be it. So we really _are_ stuck. Perfect."

"That's not the worst of it. Look."

Marty groaned. "Now I _really_ don't want to open my eyes."

"I'll tickle you if you don't," Jennifer responded with a hint of pretend evil.

"Okay, I... whoa!" Marty's jaw hung open for a few seconds. "What on earth? I know we didn't lock the doors, but..."

"I don't think they were stolen. That doesn't seem like the right answer."

"Then... you mean the time circuits just...vanished? While we were sleeping?"

"I think so. It sort of makes sense." Jennifer wasn't quite sure, and it showed in her voice.

"If Doc never built them, then they can't be here. So they aren't! It's like they've been erased."

"Erased... from existence," Jennifer added. "Marty, couldn't we be erased too?" She sounded worried now.

Marty gulped. "Uh, maybe. If we don't have a time machine, we don't have a way to get here."

"And that's not all! The funk capture is gone too!"

"The what? You mean the cog fixture?"

"No, the fog contractor."

"Uh, I thought it was a fox computer."

"What's a fox computer, Marty?"

"How should I know? What ever it is, it's gone. And... and that's why we can't remember what it's called."

"Hmm." Jennifer pondered this matter. "But why can we still remember the time circus?"

"What time circles?"

"It's a climbing turkey, of course!"

Marty shook his head. "I think we've forgotten that too. Your point was?"

"Nevermind. Marty, we need to do something!"

"Yeah, like eat." Marty rummaged for some crackers and juice.

When Jennifer's mouth was empty enough to speak again, she continued. "I mean we need to get Doc to invent... whatever makes time trouble possible."

"Travel, Jen. Time travel."

"It's much the same thing," Jen defended. "But we can't show Doctor Brown the DeLorean now. It wouldn't help him invent anything, and he wouldn't believe it's a time machine."

Marty nodded, and then poured down more juice. "Yeah. Amazing what we've caused by just preventing him from hitting his head. Hey, that's if!"

"What's it, Marty?"

"We make him hit his head! Then he'll believe that we're from the future, and we can have a decent place to stay without paying for a hotel, and he can come up with a way to send us home!"

"You're a genius!" Jennifer exclaimed, clapping her hands together after ensuring they were empty.

"Eh, it's not that revolutionary an idea. It's not like I invented mime travel."

Jennifer laughed. "It's time travel, and - indirectly - you are inventing it."

"Yeah, and I still haven't a clue how it works." Marty reconsidered the plan. "You'll need to be the one to do it. The Doc will be sick of me, and isn't likely to give me an opportunity to brain him. But he hasn't seen you yet."

"How to I get him to talk to me? I'd probably need to get inside," Jen pointed out.

"Well... the Doc fixes stuff, right? So... we need something for him to fix."

Jennifer knew exactly what needed fixing. "Your watch, Marty. It runs slow, doesn't it?" Or is it fast?"

"Yeah, both. But it's digital."

"That makes it the very thing! It'll keep him completely puzzled. And it might even help him realise we're from the future. It's perfect!"

"You've got me sold. Alright, we need to phone ahead so he knows you're coming over. I think that café has a phone."

"Lou's?"

"Yeah. Are they open?"

"After two, the sign said. I think it's about midday now."

"My watch says 4:31 so you're probably right. It the meantime, we could probably do with a wash. I feel awful after sleeping sitting up. They have public showers at the pool..."

"Which is closed."

Marty had a remaining idea. "That leaves the lake. It's kinda early, but we are planning on going there."

"Even if the stores were open, I'm not about to buy any bathing costumes," Jennifer countered.

"Skinny dip?"

"And it'll be cold."

"Very fast skinny dip," Marty amended.

"That won't help us dry fast," Jennifer pointed out.

"Doc has a towel packed," Marty stated.

"I think we're that desperate. Now the big question is: does the car start?"

"Doesn't hurt to try," Jennifer said by way of agreement.

"Here goes."

It started.


	7. It's in the Back

Finally got around to uploading this chapter! Already written one whole scene of the next :D Enjoy.

Chapter Six

"Hey kid, I see ya learned ta swim," Lou greeted.

"What?" Marty wondered, befuddled. Then he whispered to Jennifer, "Does my hair still look wet?"

"You've quit with the life preserver."

"Oh, yeah, right. Uh, I just wanna use the phone," Marty returned. "I mean, my friend does."

Lou gestured around the corner. "It's in the back."

"Thanks," beamed Jennifer as she moved away to make the call.

"You gonna order something, kid?" Lou asked when Marty didn't move.

"Oh... sure. I'll just have some ice water." He still had a few cents change.

Lou slid a glass to the teen, warning, "Don't drink it all at once."

"I'll keep that in mind." Marty took his drink and looked around for a free seat, preferably a free table. The place was fairly full, so he just walked around taking sips until he spotted something very familiar.

"Why are you so nervous, George," asked a girl a table away from Marty. She seemed to resemble someone he should know.

"Uh, well I just... well it's, um..." Marty knew who that was. Putting together the name, face, and speech patterns resulted in only one possibility: his dad. "_Wow, this is weird_," Marty thought.

"Relax, George, you don't need to nervous around me. Not after I nursed you back to health," the girl responded to the stammering George. Marty stared. "_Could she be...? But she's so... so thin!_"

"It, uh, I wasn't hurt _that _badly, Lorraine," George countered. "_Yep, it sure is her. I sure never expected to witness anything like this. Freaky._"

"Well, maybe not, but you see my point."

"What? What point, Lorraine?"

"Well... I was wondering, since we've gotten to sorta know each other, and since you're kinda cute and all," (here George coloured a bit), "and since I'm still sorry about how you got hurt yesterday..." She paused to see what he thought so far. "_Hey, she's asking him to that dance!_" Marty realised.

"Uh, Lorraine, what are you saying that you're wondering?" Marty shook his head at the scene. "_And dad has no idea._"

"I was wondering, if you'd like to, if you'd ask me to the..."

"Hey McFly!" Both McFlys turned towards the café door, where four guys had entered. Marty realised that the speaker had actually meant George, but he kept looking. "Hey, that's Biff!" he muttered to himself.

"Oh, hi Biff, hi guys. I was just..."

"You're talking to my girl, that's what you're doing!"

"I'll never be your girl!" Lorraine protested vocally.

"Quiet, you! Now George, this is gonna cost you." Biff walked closer.

"How much?" George asked dumbly.

"What've you got?" The bully took another step. He was almost beside Marty.

"Uh, I... I've, well there's... I mean it's..." George shuffled nervously through his wallet, hardly seeing the contents in his frightened state.

"Just give me the whole thing!" Biff commanded. Marty watched as Biff approached his parents. "_I can't let this happen. I can't!_" His leg shot out.

Biff toppled to the ground. All the patrons gasped, having been watching the scene intently. Biff started to pick himself up and turned himself around to see... Marty, who then realised his danger. Seizing the opportunity, he flung the icy contents of his glass into the bully's face and fled.

He was nearly to the door when Biff's three buddies tried to grab him. Marty made a pitching motion, as if to toss his glass at their faces. They flinched, and found themselves instead toppled by the time traveller's shoulder. Marty dropped the glass on a table and vanished onto the street.

Jennifer finally replaced the receiver and rounded the corner. She'd had to wait for another girl to finish a call, and then Doc's phone had been engaged. Having eventually arranged the upcoming repair of Marty's timepiece (or, more importantly, of time in general), she returned to the front of the café to find out what the yelling and commotion had been about.

The place was deserted. Fearing that Marty was somehow negatively involved, she left the building in search of answers. Happily, she quickly spotted her boyfriend returning a board with wheels to a kid. "What's going on?"

Marty mopped his forehead with his sleeve. "I'll explain in a minute. Is stuff with the Doc organised?"

"It's all taken care of, Marty."

"Then let's make tracks!"

Not far away, among the dispersing crowd, George stood talking to Lorraine, in his wavering, unsure voice. "Wow, that sure was quite a stunt! Wasn't it, Lorraine? Lorraine? Hey, where'd she go? Eh, I'd better get home before Biff comes after me. I wouldn't want that to happen." He shrugged, looked around him one more time, and fled.

Marty watched as his girlfriend was led into the unknown territory of the Brown family mansion. He believed Jennifer would be able to handle this - she'd dealt with the Peapodys without trouble - but there were still doubts in the back of his mind. He forced these out, as he didn't want to think about the consequences of failure.

Knowing there was nothing left he could do, he turned away from his vantage point... and nearly ran into the person who had silently approached him from behind. "M... uh... Lorraine!" he exclaimed in badly handled surprise."

"You... you know my name?" she wondered, drawing back slightly.

"Er, yeah! I... overheard you and George back in the café," he covered. "Yeah, I did," he added, half to himself, when Lorraine didn't answer immediately.

"Oh." Lorraine looked away and then back at Marty. "So, um... what's your name?"

"I'm Marty. Marty McFl... McFlansaas. It's, uh, nice to meet you, Lorraine."

Lorraine smiled. "You did a wonderful job of dealing with Biff back there. So I thought I ought to thank you!" she proclaimed. Her smile grew.

"Well, you're, uh, welcome. So that's why you... followed me?"

Lorraine looked away again. "Yes... So... Marty, why are you hanging around Doctor Brown's house?"

"I'm... waiting for a friend who is having a watch repaired."

"You mean that girl you were walking with? I didn't really pay much attention to her, you know?"

"Yeah, that's Jennifer, my girlfriend," Marty replied, a little defensively.

"Oh!" Lorraine seemed to be a little disappointed.

Marty didn't really like this conversation, so he changed topics to something that had been bothering him. "Say, did you get to finish asking George to the dance?"

"George McFly?"

"Yeah, you seemed to be just about to ask him when Biff showed up."

"Oh. Yes, I was, but after seeing what you did to Biff, I was wondering... well there must be someone I can find to go with who can stand up to Biff. George is... sorta helpless. It's cute, but... I think a man should be strong, and protect the woman he loves, don't you agree?"

Marty applied this idea to his own situation. "Yeah, normally I'd be in with Jennifer to watch out for her, but the Doc isn't too happy with me right now, so she had to go alone."

Lorraine seemed confused by the change. "What does that...? Oh. I think I see what you're saying. Well, I'd better be on my way home. It was nice meeting you... Marty."

Marty nodded in agreement, mostly because he was glad to be rid of her for the time being. "Ahh, yeah. Listen, you should give George another chance, okay?"

"Maybe, if I don't find anyone else. Say, have we met before? I feel like I know you from somewhere," Lorraine wondered.

"No, not yet," Marty answered truthfully. "Maybe you've seen some of my relatives."

"Maybe. I'd better go." She set off down the street. "Thanks again for what you did to Biff!" she called over her shoulder.

"_This... isn't good._" Marty mused. "_First we mess up inventing lime treacle... I mean time travel, and now I seem to have messed up my parents' first date! Jennifer should be done with the first problem soon, so we should be able to..._"

A weird sounding explosion issued from inside Doc's home.


	8. Quantum Trip

Chapter Seven

_A little earlier..._

"Would you like a drink, Miss Sparkler?"

"Cold water would be lovely, Doctor Brown. But please, call me Jennifer."

"Very well, Jennifer." Doc poured the water and set a large glass at the table where Jennifer was sitting.

"Could you tell me about this experiment you need help with?" Jennifer asked after she had wet her throat.

"Ah yes, the experiment. I've been developing a device for reading minds, and I need a human subject to verify how well it's working. There's no point in reading my own mind, and while I've proved its safety on my dog, I can't tell for certain whether it is doing anything useful."

"And you'll fix my friend's watch for free, in exchange?"

"Precisely. Or replace it, if it is irreparable, which I doubt is the case. But don't tell me anything about it. I'll use it as test data for the experiment, since it should be at the forefront of your mind."

"Shall we begin?" Jen suggested when she had downed the last of her water.

"Indeed, we shall. Step right this way," the inventor answered with a flourish.

Jennifer followed into a messy room filled with all manner of scientific equipment. "This is... interesting," she said, not quite sure of herself.

"All you do is attach the lead on here..." he stuck a suction cup on her forehead, "and I wear this specially designed helmet." He set the crazy looking device atop his head and began to fiddle with the gadget they were both attached to. "Now, I turn this dial to the right, and pull this knob, and... there, it's on!"

"I don't feel anything. Is it working?" the teen asked, concerned.

Doc grinned. "You shouldn't feel a thing. But it isn't working yet - I need to tune it. Now, I adjust that like so, and wind that one back a bit..." The pitch of the machine's hum changed accordingly.

"Picking anything up yet?"

"Shh, I must concentrate. Hmm..." Doc closed his eyes and creased his brow. "The watch... is out of time. It has no hands, but it has fingers. Fingers? That's ridiculous!"

"Digits, actually. It shows the actual numbers, rather than pointing with hands," Jennifer explained.

Doc began pacing. "Hush, I could have figured that out. Must have small components to fit that into a wristwatch. Hmm... it has a crystal? Must be a valuable watch. Now I seem to have lost the thought. Oh... a silver chariot that needs someone to fall so the time can be restored. Seems like something's getting jumbled. Now I see... myself... tripping on a cable... that makes no sense at all!"

"Yes it does," Jennifer argued. She proved her point by pulling off the suction cup and pulling the cord tight. The pacing inventor tripped right over it, almost caught his balance, and stumbled sideways into the gizmo the wires led into. His shoulder pressed in several buttons and his flailing hands flicked some switches into other positions.

As the hum grew far louder, Doc grabbed for the helmet in an attempt to pull it off his head. He was easily beaten by a small surge of electricity which had lost its way and decided to see where the wire led. Jennifer gasped as the scientist yelled and spun around wildly. The failing control device was swept off the workbench and shattered on the floor with a blinding explosion of electrical energy. Doc yelped, then collapsed.

Jennifer looked on in horror. When it appeared that the machine had stopped any dangerous activity, she checked Doctor Brown's pulse. "Oops, looks like I overdid it," she uttered when it became apparent that the critical man had remained alive.

Marty bolted into the mansion to see what had happened. "Jennifer? Jennifer, what's going on? Where are you Jen? Hello?"

"I'm alright!" Jennifer shouted back, having heard him calling. "Doctor Brown is out though!"

Marty followed the voice to its source and burst into the workroom. "Jennifer! I was worried about you! What exploded?"

"Well... I caused a mishap with that 'mindreading device' and it overloaded. While he was wearing it. He was knocked unconscious, and I don't know if he will wake up or if he will be okay when he does. I didn't mean to..."

"Don't worry Jen," Marty said softly as he put a comforting arm around her waist. "There should be some smelling salts somewhere, I expect. That should wake him up soon enough."

"Okay, let's look." The couple rummaged around the lab and then found the kitchen cupboards. When they came up empty handed, they tried some cabinets in the lounge room. Before they had opened the final door, a familiar yell drifted out of the lab.

The time travellers immediately gave up the search and dashed back to see the state of the inventor's health. As they approached the door, they heard him laughing. Marty's eyebrows shot upward in surprise and Jennifer looked puzzled. They peeked inside the room.

Doc stood at a drafting table; scribbling madly at a large sheet of paper. "Ha! I never thought this could be so simple! In fact, I don't believe I ever thought about anything like this! Remarkable."

"What's remarkable, Doc?"

The scientist whirled around to face the speaker. "You again, Future Boy?"

"Uh, yeah, I was wondering if it would be possible..."

"Possible? Possible?? Anything is possible!"

"Including time travel?"

"According to these equations... hmm, it isn't that easy due to the stability issue," Doc muttered as he wrote. "According to my calculations, the safe transit threshold is limited by relative velocity so the forward potential imparts sufficient differentiation between..."

"English, Doc," Marty requested.

"It will only work if you are travelling above a certain speed, or else there would be nasty side effects."

"Would that be eighty-eight miles per hour?"

"Precisely! But how could you possibly..."

"I'm from the future. I know these things."

"Great Scott! Then this thing must work!"

"Hey, let me see that... whoa, what is this?"

"A gaseous discharge quantum wave modifier."

"Uh, great. What does it do?"

"It stores energy and then releases it when triggered, directly influencing local quantum waves in some deterministic manner."

"Right... could you perhaps explain what quantum waves do?"

"Everything," Doc answered simply.

"And what do you achieve by influencing them?"

"Anything."

"So you can send us back to the future?"

"Us?"

"Me and Jennifer."

Doc laughed. "I should have guessed she was with you. She was rather suspicious. Wait a second!" He turned and faced Jennifer, who had slipped into the room during the conversation. "You tripped me intentionally, did you not?"

"She had to, Doc," Marty spoke up in defense. "We interrupted you too early yesterday, so you didn't slip while hanging your clock. If you didn't hit your head some time, you'd never invent time travel, and... that would be bad."

"Indeed it would. If you had prevented time travel by travelling though time, the universe would cease to make sense, or might even cease to exist!"

"Glad to hear it, Doc. So, can you get us home? Can you build a gas modcharging quantificator?"

"I'm afraid not. The triggering requires perfectly coherent beams of intense light. I don't think it's possible to create pure enough light for it to actually work. And the power requirements would be immense. It can't be done!"

"What do you mean by 'coherent'?" Jennifer asked, picking up on a familiar term.

"The light waves need to be moving in the same direction with their peaks synchnonised at the same regular intervals. Impossible."

"Not in the future," Jennifer countered. "We have things called lasers that do that."

"Jen, you aren't helping. We aren't _in_ the future."

"No, but we have a time machine from the future."

"But bits of it have been... uninvented. Travel through time is only possible if we have a gaseous discharge quantum... hey!" Marty stared at Jennifer, startled. "I'm sure it was something else before."

"By changing the past, we changed the time machine!" Jennifer proclaimed, in case anyone hadn't quite figured it out yet.

Doctor Brown clapped his hands. "Remarkable! But possible. Does this mean you are able to return home?"

Marty looked uncertain. "I'm not sure. When we last looked, the time machine was out of fuel."

"Where is it?"

"We parked it out of town. Could you give us a ride? We've already walked back and forth too many times," Marty complained.

"Please," Jennifer added. "And after dark."

"Gladly," agreed the inventor, already looking forward to seeing what sort of a time machine he would invent.


	9. Next Saturday Night!

Chapter Eight

"We put branches over it after we went to the lake," Marty explained. "People are likely to think it's a UFO or something."

"Sounds like you have strange cars in the future," said Doc as he parked his truck beside the road.

"Well they are shaped a bit differently, and you added you're own personal style," Marty replied as he and Jennifer climbed down and started uncovering the DeLorean.

"So I see. What are all those reflectors on the back?"

Jennifer removed an armload of concealing branches from the hood. "They're on the front too."

"I've never seen these before," Marty answered with slight confusion. "There used to be some sort of conduits before."

"You memory hasn't caught up with all the changes yet. I theorise that the human mind is somewhat resistant to changes, and since you are out of place in the time stream, the changes are slowed further. Thus you can remember some new facts, and some old ones," Doc explained. Then he spotted a pair of tubular devices on the back, which were surrounded by a lot of coils and miscellaneous electronic components. "These must be the quantum injectors. They must be, because that's what I've decided to call them. Remarkable."

"I think they're lasers, Doc," Marty suggested.

"Jennifer mentioned those. Are they like masers?"

Jennifer, however, had reached the extent of her knowledge. "Like what? I only remember that lasers produce coherent light. Oh, and they were invented... in a few years, I think."

"Well then, I shall call them quantum injection lasers."

"Hey Doc, this part looks the same as what I remember," Marty noticed.

Doc looked where the teen pointed, behind the lasers. "Do you know what it is?"

"Yeah, that's where the plutonium goes. We're fresh out of the stuff, if my memories are right."

"Plutonium? Great Scott! That must be what I've used to power the injectors. Unfortunately, plutonium isn't sold in every corner store these days. Hopefully it only needs the energy provided by a constant radiation source, not an actual nuclear reaction..."

"I think it was a reactor, Doc, but that might've changed. I've got the whole thing on video, so we could look at that if we can find a way to play it," Marty remembered.

"On video?"

Jennifer quickly clarified. "Like TV, Doctor Brown. But of the first time travel experiment and you talking about it. Marty filmed it."

"Amazing. Let's get this time vehicle back to my lab so we can see how it works."

_Some time l__ater…_

"One point twenty-one gigawatts? It can't be done! Impossible!!" Doctor Brown began ranting.

Marty switched off the TV and remarked to Jennifer, "The new time travel system looks so much cooler. I wish I could remember what it looks like in full colour."

"Hush Marty. What's a gigawatt?"

"Watt indeed?" Marty joked.

Jennifer poked him in the ribs.

Marty tried to poke her back, but missed.

"I'm afraid you're stuck here," announced Doc, who they'd forgotten was in the room.

"No, Doc, we can't give up now! Not with a working time machine. If something like that is possible, surely there's a way to jig some watts. If you put your mind to it..."

"...you can accomplish anything," Jennifer finished.

The inventor smiled, asking, "Did I tell you that?"

The teens nodded.

"Well, let's put it this way: the only natural source of that much power is a bolt of lightning. And there's no way of anticipating where one might hit."

"Yes there is, Doc. Everyone in the future knows about the night the Hill Valley clock tower was struck by lightning. Not so many care though. Jen?"

"Hmm? Oh!" Jennifer pulled out the crumpled flyer that Marty had written on. "Here's the details, Doctor Brown."

Doc took the note, and his eyes lit up with glee. "It says precisely when the lightning strikes. We have nearly a week to prepare. If we can somehow harness the power, and channel it into the quantum injection lasers, then...yes, it could work! Next Saturday night, we're sending you back to the future!!"

"Great to here, Doc. I guess that gives us a week to hang out in 1955."

"Out? No, you must stay indoors. You've already altered your history dangerously by interacting with me! Have you interacted with anyone else?"

"Oh... I kinda messed up my parents' first date."

"Great Scott! What happened?"

"Well, Mom was a out to ask him to the dance when Biff started bullying him."

"Tannen?" Doc figured.

"Yeah, how'd you figure?"

"I knew his father."

"Oh. Anyhow, Mom had felt all sorry for Dad 'cos Grandpa hit him with the car, but after I made Biff and his gang drive into a manure truck, she figured she needed someone who can protect her, and had second thoughts about asking him."

"Manure? How'd that happen?" Jennifer wondered aloud.

"Oh yeah, I never explained that. I tripped Biff before he could take Dad's wallet, but then they chased me. I outsmarted them with fancy skateboard moved, and the rest is history."

"The important questions are these: when is this 'dance', and do you know for sure that she won't ask him regardless?"

"You're right, Doc. The dance is Saturday night. Mom told me herself that she'd give George a chance if she doesn't find someone else. That was while I was waiting for Jennifer to make you hit your head."

"Sounds workable. She's not so likely to find someone else with only a few days until the dance. If you can talk your dad into asking her, she just might go with him anyway."

"I dunno if he has the guts to ask her," Marty countered.

"Don't worry, I have a backup plan."


	10. Saint George and the Demo

Chapter Nine

The time-trapped teens had experienced a rather dull day so far. Doc had locked himself in his lab so he could plan a way to harness lightning. Jennifer killed time messing around in the kitchen, and Marty alternated between worrying, chatting, tasting 'food' Jennifer had created, and teaching Copernicus to jump up some boxes he had found and stacked.

Eventually, it was time to head for the school to meet Marty's parents after class. In addition to Marty talking to his dad, Jen would try to see what Lorraine was thinking. Fortunately Doc had provided some less conspicuous clothes for Marty.

Marty spotted George heading for the street. "Hey, you, George! Wait up!"

"What? Hey, you're the guy who tripped B..." George recognised.

"Yeah, you're welcome. Uh... I'm sorry things got interrupted like that."

George, who had continued walking, looked puzzled. "Things?"

"Yeah, Lorraine was about to ask you to ask her to the dance."

"The Enchantment Under the Sea dance? _Lorraine _ask _me_? No way," George dismissed incredulously.

"Yes way. She told me herself."

"... Really?"

"Yeah, really. But because Biff interrupted, she's a bit afraid to ask now. So you should ask her."

"I don't know... Biff wouldn't like that. And if she's afraid, I'm even more... **Oof**!" George tripped on the curb, spreading his belongings over the sidewalk.

Marty grabbed books and papers before anyone could step on them. "Hey, what's this? 'The Merchant of Venus' - is that Shakespeare?"

"No... It's a science fiction story... about visitors... from other planets."

"You wrote this?"

George nodded slightly.

"Wow, I never would have thought you did anything creative. Are you planning to publish this?"

"Publish? Oh no, I never let anyone read my stories. What if people don't like them?"

"Naw, someone will like it. And if they don't, just try again."

"I don't think I could take that kind of rejection," George worried.

"That's what everyone says. But if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. If you keep writing, you'll find that people will like your stories. It would be a pity not to try. And it would be a pity not to ask Lorraine out. She said you're cute."

"Well, that's... nice... but I can't miss Science Fiction Theatre: It's my favourite TV program!"

"Girls are better than TV..."

"What is it to you anyway? I'm just not ready to ask her out, and no one on this planet can make me change my mind!" George stomped into his house, leaving Marty with a sneaky look on his face.

_Back at the Brown Mansion..._

"What did my mom say?" Marty asked his girlfriend.

"No luck finding a date. She thinks Biff's threatened the few remaining boys into leaving her alone. And she would only go with half of them if they did ask. What about your dad?"

"He needs a bit more motivation. I have a plan to frighten him into it. I'll tell you after Doc shows us what he's been up to. Doc?"

Emmet swallowed the remains of the cookie he's been eating (courtesy of Jennifer) and intoned, "Let's go to the lab. You will enjoy this."

The teens followed, and soon saw what Doc had been working on all day. "You've modelled Hill Valley?"

"It's only one street, Marty," Jennifer corrected.

"Please excuse the crudity of the model. I only thought to throw it together an hour ago, so I didn't have time to build it to scale or paint it."

"It's great, Doc," Marty encouraged.

"What else did you do?" asked Jennifer, figuring there must be more.

"I have perfected my plan to get you home. First, we run some industrial strength cable from the clock tower, to serve as a conduit for the lightning. This is represented in the model by copper wire. Next, we remove the quantum injection lasers from the DeLorean and mount them on a frame. These must be connected correctly to the conducting cable. Then, we adjust the reflectors so they work from the reverse angle. Then it's a simple matter of driving the DeLorean down the street at 88 miles per hour in a perfectly straight line. I should be able to add a lever to lock the steering once it's correct. The lightning will activate the lasers, which will hit the DeLorean's reflectors, exciting all the particles along the time dimension and sending it back to the future."

"Sounds great, Doc. But what if we reach the lasers too soon?"

"There will be a lever to raise the lasers out of the way, and then drop them back in the reverse direction. The frame is large enough that the DeLorean can drive safely underneath. The lasers have a range of a few yards, so we have a fairly large window of time to work in. I'll show you." Doc picked up a frame and set it down in front of the model courthouse.

"Are those real lasers?" Marty wondered, looking at the devices atop the frame.

"Yes, though they are much simpler than the pair on the DeLorean. Creating them took most of the day. They're fairly powerful, so stand back." The inventor connected the appropriate wires and produced a windup car. "Marty, you release the car. I'll simulate the lightning, and Jennifer, you pull this lever before the car reaches the frame. Then we'll do it again with the lightning coming after the car passes the frame. Marty, make sure you step back before the lasers fire."

"Check, Doc. Everyone ready?"

Jennifer tested the lever a few times. "Ready."

Doc attached a clip to the frame, and the other to the clock tower end of the wire. He readied his finger over the electrical switch. "Release!"

To his credit, Marty did line the car up perfectly. However, this was no match for the crease in the road, just before the frame. Just as the lasers switched on, the car swerved to the right and knocked the frame sideways. The blue beams of light swung around, no longer pointing up the street. Before Doc could switch off the power, a building had begun to smoulder.

Jennifer, whose lever-pulling hadn't made any difference, snatched the burning model off the table and stamped it out on the floor.

"At proper scale, variations in road surface will not be an issue."

"I hope not, Doc. But what if the lightning strikes while the lasers are turning around?"

"I'll have them disconnected in that position, so we don't cause any damage to surrounding structures. But we need to time your drive to avoid that situation, or you're really stuck here."

"You instil me with great confidence, Doc."

"The only other option is to leave the lasers on the car, put a hook on the DeLorean, and try to hit the wire with the connecting hook at precisely 88 miles per hour, the instant the lightning strikes the tower. No, it's much easier to avoid reaching the frame at that instant."

"I think I see your point. But what will you do with the lasers?"

"Which ones?"

"The qu... ones from the DeLorean," Marty clarified.

"I'll put them in storage until you get back to the future."

"Uh, about the future..."

"No, Marty. You've already changed the future too much. You mustn't tell me about my own future."

"But..."

Doc cut him off before he could say any more. "What do you have planned for your pop?"

"Can I borrow the small lasers?"


	11. Mission Briefing

Chapter Ten

_The next morning…_

"Hey, Biff-tripping-guy! Say, what is your name actually?"

Marty stepped over to his frantic future-father. "Ah, there you are, D... George. People call me Marty. What's up?"

"Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan, and told me that if I don't take Lorraine out, he'll slice me into little pieces! And he has two swords made of blue light!"

"Not so loud. Let's keep this light-saber stuff to ourselves, okay? We don't want people to panic," Marty 'explained'.

"Yes, of course," George answered in a softer voice. "Can we make this quick? I need to get to school."

"Make what quick?" Marty asked with fake perplexity.

"I need to ask Lorraine out, but I don't know if I can do it right. Since you're the one who suggested the idea, I figured you might be able to help me."

"Yeah, sure. Listen, if you want to ask without asking, just put a note in her locker. You can do that, right?"

"Of course, junk gets shoved into our lockers all the time. But what do I write?"

"Just say that she's the most beautiful girl you've seen, and that you want to help her because she can't find a date. Say that her destiny is calling her to be in front of the school at nine pm, near the stairs or something like that. Girls love that stuff. Try to sound a bit mysterious, but don't overdo it."

"This is good stuff. Anything else?"

"One more thing. You need to show her that you can stand up for yourself and protect her."

"Sure, but how do I do that?"

"Don't let people tell you what to do because you're afraid of them. Maybe practice punching so you feel like you aren't so helpless." Marty considered what he'd said. "Actually, that gives me another idea. How about I meet you after school?"

"Alright. I'd better go now. Thanks, Marty, you've been a big help."

"No problem, just make sure she gets the note."

"The note, right, yeah."

Marty watched as his teenaged father bolted into school, shaking his head. "It's a miracle I was ever born," he muttered. "And I may need a miracle to ever _be_ born." With a dismissive shrug he turned and began trudging back to the Brown mansion. Hopefully Doc and Jennifer hadn't burned it down while he was gone.

_That afternoon..._

"I don't know about this," George worried.

"C'mon, it's easy. I've got the hard part."

George reached for some dry washing. "But I've never actually hit someone before."

"That's the point. You have to show her that you can if you need to."

"But Marty, I might hurt you!"

"That's what it's supposed to look like. Just don't do it too hard."

"I don't think I can make myself do that..." George whined.

"Just imagine: You're at the school, at the dance. You're talking to Lorraine, saying how beautiful she looks and how destiny brought you together. Everything's perfect, right?"

"Uh huh."

"Then some drunk guy comes up and grabs at her to pull her away from you."

"No! Get your hands off her, you filthy drunk!" George exploded.

"Augh!" Marty doubled over in pain.

"Marty? Are you alright? Did I hit you too hard?"

Marty straightened up gingerly. "Uh... not _too_ hard. Remember, I was acting." His fingers found the sorest spot. "Ow! Mostly acting. Ooo... just a moment."

"Sorry, I got a bit caught up in the story."

"Don't worry, that was my intention. Just do that - maybe a touch softer - on Saturday night, and it'll turn out fine."

"Yeah... but you won't really be drunk, right?"

"Of course not. It's just an act. Now, I'd better be going. See you Saturday, and good luck."

"Uh, thanks. But why are you so..." George wondered a moment too late. Marty had already left the yard. "Weird guy, playing matchmaker. Him and that alien both. Now there's an idea…"

Author's Note:

Anyone remember this story?  
Sorry this is such a sort chapter, it just split well there. (Actually, all this was written many months ago, but now that I have started on the next chapter, I've finally got around to uploading this one.)

Actually, the next chapter is already longer than this one!  
Hope you enjoyed it!


	12. Eventual Success

Chapter 11

_Saturday night…_

Marty squirmed in the darkness, wondering what he'd done to deserve this. Well, he knew what he'd done: trip Biff and cause him to redecorate his car, but surely that was a good deed that should be rewarded. Unfortunately Biff had other plans, which is why Marty found himself locked in the trunk of a car only a minute after he had arrived. He banged and yelled a few more times, but no one was around to hear him. "_Perfect, this is just perfect. I wonder if Dad's doing okay without me. He'd better, or I'm going to be erased before I have a chance to get out of here. If only I had a torch to see whether that photo is still being erased…"_

"Alright!" Marty exclaimed as he realized how he could escape. He didn't have a torch, but he did still have Doc's two demo lasers with him. He could melt his way through the lock!

Five minutes later, the teen was somewhat less enthusiastic. While the beams had been hot enough to ignite paper, melting through metal was something that only happened in movies. In frustration, he bashed a laser (housed in a sturdy metal cylinder) against the lock mechanism. Surprisingly, this caused the latch to release, flooding the trunk with fresh air. "Huh!"

Relieved, Marty sprang out to the car-park. He pulled the photo of himself and his siblings out of his wallet and was even further relieved to find it had been completely restored. "I guess they sorted everything out without my help," he observed. Deciding to double-check that everything was fine, he headed for the entrance of the school hall. As he neared the door, he happened to glance in the direction of the stairs. Biff's three minions were visible at the foot of the stairs, standing around an unconscious body.Marty ducked inside before they spotted him.

Inside, the time-traveler saw a flurry of dancing couples, including his parents. Satisfied that everything was as it should be, and not wanting to stick around to mess up anything else, he ran back to Doc's car and drove to the clock-tower.

_A little later…_

"Marty, you're on time!" Doc exclaimed when the teen parked his borrowed car near the courthouse.

"Yeah, there was no need to stick around," Marty called back.

"The storm is headed this way," Jennifer observed. "The plan is on!"

"Great." Marty dropped a bundle of clothes into Doc's arms. "I didn't really need these. Spent most of the night in the trunk of someone's car. Biff caught me."

"But your parents' relationship returned to it's proper course without your intervention?"

"Uh, yeah, it did. Although there was something strange. I saw Biff on the ground near where they had agreed to meet. Looked like he'd been knocked down the stairs."

"Could it have been your dad?" Jennifer wondered.

"Nah, couldn't have been him… I think. I guess I'll find out in about thirty years."

"Well we'd better get a move on. We need to get the cover off the time machine. The laser platform is all set up and plugged in to the clock-tower." Doc reached into one of his deep coat pockets. "Here's the key to start the time machine… and… what's this envelope?"

"You'll find out in thirty years, Doc."

"Marty! It's about the future, isn't it?"

"Trust me, it's important!"

"I can't accept that! It's too dangerous to know about my future!"

"I'm trying to make sure you _have_ a future, Doc!"

"No, Marty, I know too much already! Knowledge of my future could endanger our very existences!!" The scientist ripped up the envelope and stuffed the pieces back in his pocket.

"He's trying to _save_ your life!" Jennifer interjected crossly.

Doctor Brown looked back at her, startled. A branch chose that moment to interrupt the argument by falling on the electrical cable. "Ahh!"

"Quick, we've got to hook it back up," Jennifer instructed as the other two looked in horror.

"Yes, I'll climb up and throw down a line. Marty, you tie it to the cable so I can pull it up. Jennifer, put this clock in the time machine. I've set the alarm to signal the optimum time to start driving, taking into account the acceleration profile and wind speed retroactive from 10:04 PM. I've painted a line for your starting position, way over there."

Jennifer took the clock and Marty stood by for tying. Doc soon appeared at the top of the clock and threw down a line. "Doc, I have to tell you about the future!" Marty tried as he made a suitable knot. Doc began hauling up the electrical cable, but he didn't respond, possible because he couldn't hear over the thunder, or else he chose to ignore it.

"Never mind, Marty. We need to get in position," Jennifer prompted.

"But.. Doc… the Libyans…"

"Don't worry, it hasn't happened yet, and we still have time to stop it." Jennifer slid into her seat. "Come on, drive."

Marty gave up on shouting at Doc and followed his girlfriend into the DeLorean. "Right, we've got a little under five minutes." He gunned the engine and raced towards the conveniently labeled starting line. Jennifer held on tight as he spun the car around to face the clock-tower and lasers. "Hmm, the time circuit controls look a little different to what I remember… but I think we can work them out."

"We should go back ten minutes early," Jennifer instructed.

"Early? But then we'll arrive before we left. Is that possible?"

"Of course, we have a time machine."

"But there will be two of us… I think."

"Never mind that, we need to give ourselves extra time so we can warn Doc."

"Ahh, that's your plan. Better make it fifteen." Marty pushed buttons until the destination display showed the correct date and time. "I think that should be right. Hmm… I think I need to toggle all these switches too." He did so and various parts of the car began to glow and hum.

Jennifer nodded. "That does seem right… though I only have a partial memory. Weird."

Marty revved the engine and counted down the final seconds aloud. The alarm rang and he let out the clutch. "Here we go! Prepare yourself for temperature replacement."

"Temporal displacement," Jennifer corrected, although she figured that Marty really knew that already. "I hope Doc has the cable all hooked up.

Doc did not in fact have the cable all hooked up. After some rather uncomfortable acrobatics, he'd succeeded in plugging in his end, and unplugging the other. After wondering why he hadn't asked his visitors to move the branch off the cable, he invented a way to slide down the cable and unceremoniously land in a heap on the ground. At that moment, he heard the sound of the DeLorean accelerating, and knew he didn't have a lot of time. Unfortunately, he'd designed the rig with the connection point in the middle of the top, equidistant from both lasers. Symmetry had seemed like a good idea at the time.

As the time vehicle grew closer, Doc scrambled up the wooden frame and along the top, gripping the critical cable tightly. The car was nearly under him. As he reached for the electrical socket, there was a clunk as the lasers spun out of the way and moved to face the back of the stainless-steel blur. The tremor nearly knocked him to the road: his grip on the cable and socket was the only thing that saved him from a nasty fall.

As he pulled his hands together, he heard the click of the minute hand moving. An instant later, lightning flashed from the storm clouds to the clock and continued down the cable. The electricity raced to the lasers, the force jolting him so he was lying across the top of the frame. Struggling not to fall off, he turned to see the blue beams strike the receding car. It pulsed in a violent white flash and vanished, leaving trails of fire in its wake. Doc closed his eyes and rejoiced with a silent smile.


	13. Aberrations

Chapter 12

"Marty, wake up!" a voice called urgently.

"Mom? Mom, is that you?" he muttered, still mostly out of it.

"It's Jennifer. You need to wake up!"

Marty finally forced his eyes completely open and looked around warily. "Where are we?"

"We're in the time machine, remember?"

"Oh… DOC! What time is it?"

"We're too late, Marty. We were out for about twenty minutes, and we only had fifteen."

"It knocked us out? That never happened before… or did it? I really don't remember." He looked out the window to see where they'd arrived. "How come we're still beside the courthouse?"

Jennifer shrugged uncomfortably. "Perhaps when we travelled in time it caused the car to stop moving, and then the engine cut out automatically for safety. I think I remember Doc mentioning that. Perhaps."

"Doc… we've got to save him! If we get the plutonium from the mall, we can travel back to yesterday," Marty suggested, somehow managing to think 4th dimensionally for a moment or two.

Jennifer shook her head. "The Libyans will have taken it."

"Not if we stop them," Marty argued.

"They'll be gone by now!"

"But if we travelled back in time, we could stop them before they take the plutonium, so we can."

"Marty, I don't think it works like that."

"You don't know that for sure!"

"Fine, drive us to the mall and we'll see what's there," Jennifer conceded.

The couple stayed silent for the duration of the drive, both feeling somewhat upset and not really sure what to say. The whole time-travel experience had been rather surreal. Marty found himself unintentionally humming some of the music from the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, while Jennifer squirmed uncomfortably in the seat beside him. Something seemed to be bothering her.

Upon arriving at the parking lot, they quickly forgot their troubles. Doc stood leaning against his van with an amused grin. Beside him, Einie barked a happy greeting.

"Doc! You're alive. But I saw you die!" Marty exclaimed, a little confused, yet pleased and immensely relieved.

The inventor pulled back his lab-coat. "I came prepared."

"A bullet-proof vest? But… you tore up my letter! How did you know?"

Doc pulled the letter out of one of his pockets, showing that he'd taped it back together. Marty and Jennifer looked at each other blankly. Finally Jennifer asked, "But what about that speech about not knowing too much about your future?"

He shrugged. "A good scientist always keeps an open mind. Now it's my turn to ask a question. Marty, when did you dye your hair?"

"Huh? I didn't do anything to it!"

"He's right, it's orange! I'm sure it wasn't like that when we left," Jennifer observed. "I thought it looked different when I woke you, but I couldn't really tell in the poor light.

"Curious. Perhaps the quantum disruption calculations were slightly off, resulting in a minor reconfiguration of matter…"

"English, Doc!" Marty demanded.

"When you travelled through time, something went wrong and turned your hair red. Do you see anything else that's wrong?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm fine. Wait a minute, Doc, are you saying it could have killed us, if it, say, turned my heart into a rock or something?"

"No, while the quantum fluctuations might change you from a live person into a slightly different live person, the wave-function differential between a live person and a dead person will not fall within acceptable limiting parameters of the transform sequence protocols…"

"Great, 'no' is good for me."

Doc nodded. "Jennifer, what about you?"

"Um… I think shrunk my top slightly."

Marty shook his head. "I don't think it did, Jen."

"I don't want to talk about it.

"Before you returned home, did you alter the temporal offset computer settings?" Doc asked, trying to find a source for the problem.

"Um… we changed it to take us fifteen minutes before we originally left," Marty answered, guessing at the meaning of the question.

"It's possible that the computer did not have time to finish calculating the precise pulse profile after the change, resulting in aberrant results."

"It also made us unconscious for about twenty minutes," Jennifer added.

The inventor nodded. "That would happen if the time-jump was not quite perfect, confirming my theory. I'm not sure if the changes are permanent, but if so it should be a simple matter to reprogram the quantum wave modifier to restore you to the correct forms. Though it will take several hours of calculations before it can be done safely."

Marty looked wary. "I might wait and see how the redhead look works before letting you mess around with me again. I'll hafta tell my parents I dyed it."

Jennifer said nothing.

"Well, we can certainly say that tonight was a complete success, accidents notwithstanding. It's time I took you two home, and then I can get on with the next phase: visiting the future!"

"Sounds great, Doc. Just don't spend too long away."

"Don't worry, Marty, I have a time machine, remember? I'll be back in the morning whatever happens, to check on your hair and your family."

"Family?" Marty wasn't sure what his family had to do with anything.

"Since you changed the circumstances of your parents' meeting, other parts of their past may have changed as a result. Obviously, you and your siblings still exist, so there's no problem there, but there may be other minor changes as a result of your interference. If there are any problems, let me know. Fortunately, your new memories should become available, like your memories of the altered time machine."

"Right… I'll do that. I guess I'll see you in 25 years?"

"How about 30? Nice round number."

Marty nodded. "Look me up when you get there. I'll be... wow, 47."

"See you in the future," Doc agreed.


	14. Return from the Future via the Past?

Chapter 13

Marty smiled to himself. Whatever he'd done to the past seemed to have had a positive effect so far. Not only did his house look much more respectable, but his brother had a decent job and – miracle of miracles – his sister had boyfriends! He wondered where his parents were and hoped that the positive trend extended to them.

Pretty soon, they walked in the front door, back from their game of tennis. The sounded like they had enjoyed themselves and actually appeared to be truly happy to be together. "Wow, you guys look great!" he couldn't help saying.

"Why, thanks Marty!" his mother replied. "You don't look so bad yourself, though perhaps you should change your clothes as often as your hair colour."

"Um… yeah, I thought I'd try out the redhead look for a while."

"Well I'm sure Jennifer will love it. Such a sweet girl."

"Yeah… right…" Naturally Marty didn't mention that Jennifer had already seen it.

"Marty," Linda said, catching his attention. "I'm not your answering service, but she called earlier, while you were still asleep." Her tone indicated that she saw his sleep-in as laziness. "She said she'll be around soon."

"Oh. Thanks." Marty digested this information, and some breakfast.

"I suppose she's here to finish planning your trip up to the lake," George commented. "Biff should be done waxing your truck by now."

"Lake… Biff… truck… huh?" Marty was completely lost. Perhaps this new version of reality was even more unbelievably better than he'd expected.

His thoughts were interrupted by the man in question barging in the front door. "Hey, Mister McFly! You've got mail! From the studio!!" He handed over a large envelope, which was marked 'Prioirity'.

George tore it open excitedly and skimmed the contents. "Good news, they've approved the script! Full production should start soon."

"Script? Production?" Marty wondered aloud.

Linda looked at him like he was completely dense. "You know, for the latest movie sequel. Darth Wars 3 – Return to Vulcan. The one where Gary and Lotta discover that Darth Vader is the preincarnation of their son and that Murphy's destiny was to return to his homeworld to defeat Beef McTinner with the help of the mad scientist Doctor Indigo and his silver space-car. But they are nearly thwarted when the Doctor meets the beautiful Claire, who is a robot programmer from the third moon, and actually a robot herself, but that isn't revealed until later…"

"That's… inspired," Marty muttered, deciding that he'd better get out of the house before anything more crazy happened.

"Here's your keys, Marty," Biff said as he tossed them to the fleeing teen.

"Um… thanks." He quick-stepped to the garage and found the very 4x4 he'd been practically drooling over the day before. "Wow, this reality just gets better and better."

"Take me for a ride, mister?"

"And better," he amended, whirling around to see his girlfriend. "It's great to be back where we belong."

She nodded. "I really like your new hair. It stands out."

"You too. I mean, you look great. Uh, I guess we'd better wait for Doc to show up. He never actually set a particular time to come back."

"We'll have to find something to do while we wait," she stated with a twinkle in her eye. She stepped close and leaned in for a kiss.

Thankfully, Doc's loud and sudden arrival waited a few more seconds before startling the couple apart. The DeLorean squealed into the driveway, bowling over some bins. The gull-wing doors opened, allowing a woman in her thirties and a man in his forties to step out dramatically. They wore infectiously bright clothes of an unusual design. "Marty!" a somewhat familiar voice called. The man pulled up the silver visor that had covered his eyes.

Marty studied the face of the rather tall and excited man. "Doc?? What year did you come from?"

"Twenty-fifteen," the inventor answered as he dashed around the car to collect some rubbish. The woman looked on with amusement.

"The future? Why do you look so young? Did you have something done to you in the future?" Jennifer asked, before Marty had a chance to say the exact same thing.

"No, that was caused by an error in my calculations." He jerked a thumb at the interior of the DeLorean, indicating another quantum mishap, and strode to the back of the vehicle where he flipped open the cover of an unfamiliar white device, releasing steam. He dropped in a number of items and closed the lid. "Fuel," he said, by way of explanation.

Marty nodded, hoping that meant they didn't need plutonium any more. "If you say so, Doc. Umm… who's your companion?"

"Ah! Good question. This is Clara, my wife."

Jennifer grinned and Marty blinked in surprise. "Is she a robot programmer from the future?" he queried.

"No, she's a schoolteacher from 1885."

"Schoolteacher… close enough. Wait… what were you doing in 1885?"

Doc looked sheepish. "Yet another slight error in my calculations. I didn't succeed in taking a direct trip to the future, and got stranded for a while due to a ripped fuel line and minor damage to the car body. I set myself up as a blacksmith to make repairs and borrowed a locomotive to push the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour."

Jennifer gasped at this news. It seemed that the inventor had had even more adventures that she and Marty. Marty's face had a flash of recognition as a set of new memories clicked into place. "She's Clara Clayton, the schoolteacher who was kidnapped by hijackers! The blacksmith tried to save her but they all perished when the locomotive crashed into ravine, since the bridge wasn't built yet. They named the ravine after her!"

Doc nodded. "I looked up the records when we got to the future. It seems that the mayor liked me too much to suspect that I was the hijacker."

"Wait a minute, Doc… how did you survive the crash?"

"You need to think fourth dimensionally, Future Boy. We instantaneously arrived in 2015, in which time the bridge existed, so we were safe. Fortunately we reached 88 miles per hour before we reached the end of the track that existed in 1885."

"I… see. Well, it seems like we did a good job of fixing the past. Life is peachy for George McFly and family, though I'm not so sure what's become of George Lucas."

"Who?" Doc asked.

"Never mind. So… how does the future look? I can see that fashion has… progressed."

"The future! We'd better all be going!" Doc suddenly remembered.

"Going? Where? When?"

"Back to the future! Something has to be done about your kids!"

"Our kids?" Jennifer asked hopefully.

"Yes, now get in the car. There should be enough room if you two share a seat. Quickly now."

"Don't we have all the time in the world?" Marty wondered as he climbed into the seat.

"Yes, but we only have so long before someone comes out and wonders who we are." Doc took his rightful position in the driver's seat and Jennifer snuggled into Marty's lap, with Clara sitting in the middle seat, which appeared to be newly installed.

"I see you've made a few upgrades," Marty observed.

"Yes, but there's still not enough room to sit in the back. Once we're done here, I'll see what I can do about that," Doc answered as he backed out of the driveway.

"Hey Doc, don't you need to back up? We won't have enough road to get up to 88," Marty warned. Jennifer looked to Clara who smiled back, indicating that there was a good reason for this.

"Roads? Where we're going we don't need, roads."

The End. (for now)

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Sorry for the long wait towards the end, I got a bit busy and kinda put off writing for a while. It's all done now, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. A sequel is likely!


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